"May He give you the desires of your heart and make all your plans succeed."

Saturday, February 5, 2011

Don't Mess with my Children

You've undoubtedly heard the wise advice not to come between a mother bear and her cub. People can be the same way. When it comes to our children, most of us would rather endure any insult or injury ourselves than to see our kids suffer. In fact, we see an attack on our children as an assault on us.

Did you know that Jesus feels the same way about you?

When Saul was confronted by Jesus on the road to Damascus, Jesus didn't say, "Why are you persecuting my followers?"

He said, "Why are you persecuting ME?"

You see, Jesus takes it rather personally when someone abuses His children. When the Israelites were being persecuted, God took it very personally. And when He led them out of Egypt, and the Pharoah's Army was in hot pursuit, Moses told them (Exodus 14:14) "The LORD will fight for you; you need only to be still.”

You see, it was God's battle to fight.

Why do you suppose the enemy, Satan, loves to attack the children of God?

He certainly cannot attack God directly - he has no power against God and he knows that he is subject to God's sovereignty. And he knows his most effective weapon is to strike at the very heart of God through attacks on his children.

Of course, he has no power over God's children either, except what we willingly hand over to him.

When we mistakenly believe a battle is between us and Satan, or more often, between us and another person, we hand Satan a victory on a silver platter. We end up like two toddlers wrestling in the sand box over who will drive us home. We both belong to the same Father.

Satan is just a stranger seeking to kidnap us from our loving home and instead of standing united with our Father, we waste our time fighting one another. Regardless of what the offense or injury is, the battle is between God and Satan. We are the children of God and our Father wants to fight our battles for us! He is perfectly capable of crushing Satan's head. But we have to get out of the way and let Him take care of it.

How do we let God handle it? Isn't there SOMETHING we need to do?

Jesus gave us the play book for winning every battle. Our instructions are simple and go something like this, "You have heard it was said, 'Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.' But I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you that you may be sons of your Father in heaven." (Matthew 5:44-45) Whatever the disagreement, victimization, abuse, torture, cruelty, offense, or insult, the instructions to us are the same. "Pray for the person who hurt you."

Love them.

Not in the Valentine's Day, send-them-a-box-of-candy-and-a-Hallmark-card kind of way. And not by simply saying words without meaning. Love is an action demonstrated most perfectly in Christ's sacrificial death on the cross.

Loving them means giving yourself up for them. Giving until you cannot give any more and then praying that God will give you more so you can give that away too.

Luke 6:27-30 takes this radical love thing even farther, "But I tell you who hear me: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you. If someone strikes you on one cheek, turn to him the other also. If someone takes your cloak, do not stop him from taking your tunic." And in verse 35, "But love your enemies, do good to them and lend to them without expecting to get anything back. Then your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High because he is kind to the ungrateful and wicked."

Are you one who hears Him? Remember, it is not a battle between two people. It is God's battle. "The Lord will fight for you; you need only to be still."

6 comments:

Wow! How I needed to be reminded of this today. Your words were a healing balm on my wounded spirit today. I love the analogy of the mother bear protecting her cubs. As a mama myself, I completely identify with that word picture,and it makes me feel so safe when I consider that is how my Heavenly Father feels about me, His precious daughter. Thanks for brightening my morning. God bless!

I been fighting a longsuffering battle and recently lost primary custody of my 10 year old little angel that God has loan to me. Her Father and I has been divorced for over 8 years now. Since then he has been re-married to a 4th wife and she has moved him in her million dollar home. He doesn’t work and he currently depends on his wife for support. Recently about a week ago Prince William County Juvenile Domestic Court, in Manassas, VA. removed my child from her Virginia home that she has lived, and went to school since she was the age of two, to her Father home in which he lives in Clinton Maryland. The Reason why they took the child is because his wife house was bigger than mine, and they didn't want me to take the child to church during the week day. The Judge ordered that the child go to church one day a week. I know right than that this was the act of wickedness in high places. I'm a Faithful Honest hard working Citizen who does not smoke, drink, or never been on drugs ever in my life. I'm a Christian Women who go to church as often as I can, work and take care of our child. Taking a child from a Mother who has always afforded to take care of the child physically and Financially without the help of the other party by the grace of God is Insane to me. My heart aches daily every since this action has accrued. My daughter is devastated and has written death letters to take her life since this has accrued. All of the Evidence was presented to the court and they still wouldn't bring my baby back to the comfort of her Mother and VA. home. We are living in the last and evil days, and evil is rising up and ranging daily. Evil is fighting against the children of God. The Justice system has failed and the world is turned upside down. Reading this Blog really helped me tremendously to help me to prepare for these battles and spiritual warfare. The enemy is busy seeking whom he may devil to steal, kill and destroy. I know you don't know me personally, but please keep us in your prayers that as I learn to trust God and STAND Still that he will turn this situation back around and fight all my battles. God Bless You!

Women of God - I am so sorry to have not seen and replied to your comment sooner! I'm still learning blogger and didn't realize that it wasn't notifying me of comments on older posts! I am praying for you now that God would protect your precious daughter and would reunite you. You are not alone - I have personally known 3 wonderful moms who have lost their children in recent years for no cause whatsoever. God sees your hurt and He sees your child's need. You are right - this battle is not your, but the Lord's. May He be glorified in how you continue to show the love of Christ despite persecution. Love you, sister!